1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to pet enclosures that are readily stackable so as to occupy as little retail space as possible. More particularly, the pet shelter includes a top section and a bottom section, and both the top and bottom sections fit snugly within each other when one section is inverted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pet shelters that are available for purchase at retail pet stores are well known. Many of these shelters have a two-piece construction, consisting of a top section and a bottom section. Typically, the bottom section is a substantially rectangular box with a flat bottom and an open top. The top section is often shaped like a prism, with a triangular cross-section. This top section thus provides the shelter with a steeply sloped roof. This slope allows the roof to easily shed rain water, and discourages pets from climbing on top of the shelter.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 349,980 to Northrop et al. discloses an ornamental design for a pet house. The house has a two-piece construction. The bottom section comprises a rectangular box with an open top and sidewalls that gradually slope outward from the bottom. The top section is shaped generally like a prism, with an open rectangular bottom and seven walls. The two end walls are generally hexagonal, the bottom edge of each being the longest edge. One end face of both the bottom and top sections includes a substantially U-shaped opening. When the top and bottom sections are assembled, the open ends of the U-shaped openings face each other, creating a substantially rectangular opening that serves as an entrance/exit for the shelter.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 366,541 to Bradburn et al. discloses a doghouse that is remarkably similar in shape and design to the Northrop shelter. The main difference between the Bradburn and Northrop shelters is that the end faces of the top section of the Bradburn shelter have only five edges, whereas the end faces of the top section of the Northrop shelter have six edges.
In both the Northrop and Bradburn designs, the top section is readily insertible within the interior of the bottom section once the top section has been inverted. Because of the shapes and sloped edges of the top sections of both designs, however, the bottom section does not fit snugly within the interior of the top section. The base of the bottom section is too wide to fit very far into the open end of the top section. Thus, a stack of either of these shelters that was arranged bottom, top, bottom, top, bottom, etc. would be very unstable and quite high in relation to the number of shelters in the stack.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,371 to Markey et al. discloses a pet enclosure that has a generally hollow box-shaped base and a roof hingedly attached to the base. The roof is gable-styled, with triangular end faces. The side edges of each triangle slope sharply. The side edges of the bottom section slope very gradually. Therefore, the bottom section will not nest within the inverted top section.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,137 to Stanaland discloses a whelping box having a top section and a bottom section. Both sections are substantially rectangular boxes with open ends. The bottom section includes a removable insert having a ledge around the inside surface of three walls. The insert is nearly identical to the bottom section, but is slightly smaller for snug engagement with the interior of the bottom section. Even without the insert, the top and bottom sections are not capable of very efficient stacking. The sides of the top section include ventilation openings that protrude from the outer surface of each side. Thus, the openings obstruct the path of the inverted top section as it is slid into the bottom section. Furthermore, the ledge around the inside of the insert creates empty space beneath the ledge into which neither an inverted top section nor an inverted bottom section can advance.
In retail outlets, where pet shelters are often sold, display space is at a premium. Therefore, two-piece shelters are typically broken down into their separate sections so that the sections can be stacked, thereby maximizing the number of shelters per unit area of shelf space. Unfortunately, pet shelters having sloped roofs are not very amenable to efficient stacking. One way to stack these shelters is to create two stacks, one stack of bottom sections, and one stack of top sections. This method has the obvious drawback of occupying double the shelf space of a single stack. This method also disadvantageously requires additional warehouse space and is expensive to transport.
In order to eliminate one stack from the above method, another method of stacking is to place the stack of top sections upon the stack of bottom sections. This method reduces the amount of shelf space occupied by the two stacks, but makes the job of removing one pet shelter from the stack very difficult. When a customer wishes to purchase one of the shelters, he or she or a store employee must remove the entire stack of top sections from the stack of bottom sections in order to extract a bottom section. The stack of top sections is sometimes quite heavy, making this method very inconvenient.
Another method of stacking is to invert a top section and place it inside a bottom section. This method eliminates the difficulty of having to move a large stack of top sections in order to extract a bottom section. Depending upon the angle of slope in the top section, however, this method may create a large amount of empty space between the top and bottom sections. With very steeply sloped roofs, the top section may even lean to one side within the bottom section. Further, a second bottom section typically will not fit within the inverted top section, at least not without creating a very large amount of empty space between the two. Such a stack tends to be very unstable and unsafe. In addition the stack occupies a great deal of vertical space compared to the number of pet shelters in the stack.
Thus a pet shelter that is amenable to stacking in a bottom-top-bottom-top-bottom-etc. fashion would be of significant advantage to pet store owners and pet product consumers. The device should enable a stable stack that is comparatively short in comparison to the number of shelters in the stack.
The preferred embodiments of the stackable pet shelter have several features, no single one of which is solely responsible for their desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this invention as expressed by the claims that follow, its more prominent features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled xe2x80x9cDetailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments,xe2x80x9d one will understand how the features of the preferred embodiments provide advantages, which include ready stackability in an efficient and stable manner.
Preferred embodiments of the stackable pet shelter comprise a bottom section and a top section that mate to form a sturdy shelter. The bottom section is shaped substantially as a hollow rectangular box having a floor and four sidewalls. The sidewalls slope outwardly, and a first sidewall includes a substantially U-shaped opening. The legs of the U are bent slightly outward. The top section is shaped substantially as a hollow six-walled structure having two opposite rectangular walls, two opposite pentagonal walls and a peaked roof. The sidewalls slope outwardly away from the roof, and a first sidewall includes a substantially U-shaped opening, with the legs of the U bent slightly outward.
The top and bottom sections are configured such that an inverted top section fits snugly within an interior of a bottom section, and a bottom section fits snugly within an interior of an inverted top section. Thus, preferred embodiments of the pet shelter enable efficient stacking of multiple shelters in a bottom-top-bottom-top-bottom-etc. arrangement. Several features of the pet shelter contribute to its stackability. First, the sidewalls of the top and bottom sections slope at roughly equal angles. Second, the legs of the U-shaped openings are bent at roughly equal angles on both the top and bottom sections. Third, the height of the top section is roughly equal to the height of the bottom section. Fourth, the roof of the top section has a very gradual slope, such that the peak of the roof does not obstruct nesting of a top section within a bottom section.